Maryn McKenna

Journalist and Author

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Thankful For A Good Kid, And A Chance To Pay It Forward

November 22, 2012 By Maryn Leave a Comment

On a day when we all think about food, I want to revisit, and update, my favorite food-related story of the year.

Constant readers may remember, from back in June, the story of 9-year-old Martha Payne of Scotland. Her blog “Never Seconds,” featuring photographs of her unhealthy school lunches, caused so much embarrassment in her school district that the county council tried to shut her down. The news of their mendacious unfairness rippled across the media and the Internet, and hundreds of thousands of people — including a number of celebrities, and thousands of Superbug readers — applied enough pressure to get the decision reversed.

Martha (whom I’ve never met) seems to be a smart, sensible kid, with caring, thoughtful parents; her mother is a primary-care doctor, and her father has a small farm. With rare maturity, they resisted enormous pressure to monetize her celebrity, and turned the attention into a benefit for someone else.

Actually, lots of someones. They asked readers and supporters to donate to a charity, Mary’s Meals, that feeds schoolchildren in some of the world’s poorest areas — including Malawi, where Scottish roots date back to the arrival of explorer David Livingstone in the 1860s. At this point, five months later, Martha and her family have raised £120,000 (almost $200,000), enough to build a kitchen and distribute school supplies to thousands of kids.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Science, Science Blogs, Superbug Tagged With: food, food policy, kids, nutrition, Science Blogs, Scotland

9-Year-Old Who Changed School Lunches Silenced By Politicians

June 14, 2012 By Maryn Leave a Comment

NeverSeconds’ first school-lunch photo, May 8, 2012. The tubular thing is mashed potatoes in a crust.

[Updated: June 15, 2012. Read to the end for developments!]

For the past two months, one of my favorite reads has been Never Seconds, a blog started by 9-year-old Martha Payne of western Scotland to document the unappealing, non-nutritious lunches she was being served in her public primary school. Payne, whose mother is a doctor and father has a small farming property, started blogging in early May and went viral in days. She had a million viewers within a few weeks and 2 million this morning; was written up in Time, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, and a number of food blogs; and got support from TV cheflebrity Jamie Oliver, whose series “Jamie’s School Dinners” kicked off school-food reform in England.

Well, goodbye to all that.

This afternoon, Martha (who goes by “Veg” on the blog) posted that she will have to shut down her blog, because she has been forbidden to take a camera into school. She said: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Science, Science Blogs, Superbug Tagged With: food, food policy, kids, nutrition, Science Blogs, Scotland

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